Name: Mark Lyons

Investment company name: Puma Growth Partners

AUM: £230m

No. of Portfolio companies: 21

No. of Portfolio companies in the North of England: 1

Average no. of deals per year: 5

Team size: 13

Website: www.pumagrowthpartners.co.uk

Location(s): Manchester, Edinburgh and London

Name three notable portfolio companies: Bikmo, Aveni, Lucky Saint

Fund name: Puma VCTs (Puma VCT 13 and Puma Alpha VCT)

Investment ticket range: £4m-£10m

Stage: Series A growth capital

Sectors: Generalist

Location: UK

Other investment criteria: VCT and EIS qualifying

What do you look for in an investee business?🔗

We provide investment of £4m to £10m per round to UK scale-up companies. We typically invest in companies with the following attributes:

• Strong management team and company culture.
• Disruptive opportunity selling into an established market.
• Proven commercial model with a clear market fit (typically revenues of £2+ million)
• VCT / EIS qualifying

Why founders choose you as an investor? 🔗

1. Our portfolio ranges across consumer, B2B, SaaS and marketplaces. This gives us unique insights into the scale-up journey, which inform all aspects of how we work with founders and their teams.
2. As we maintain a concentrated portfolio, we are able to spend significant time with each of the businesses we partner with. This commitment ensures we are able to create deep relationships and provide active and meaningful support.
3. Founders not only benefit from our expert investment team but also have access to our specialist Value Acceleration team and sector experts (such as marketing, legal and HR) from the broader Puma Capital Group.
4. Our ethos is built around a learning culture, where we continuously pick apart experiences we go through, to extract the lessons learnt and share them.
5. We’ve seen almost every kind of scale-up challenge from every perspective, and focus on supporting our companies through:
   1. Utilising industry best practices – to help management teams develop their own bespoke operational and financial methodologies.
   2. Strategy – working closely with management teams to define and refine growth strategy, both at the outset and on an ongoing basis.
   3. Networking opportunities – we welcome founders (and their senior teams) to our network through our Senior Management Club and CFO Club.

How to get in touch with you? 🔗

Email – mark.lyons@pumagp.co.uk